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Contact information: Washington, D.C. Office: 2113 Rayburn House Office Building, District of Columbia 20515-1802 Phone: (202) 225-6636 Fax: (202) 225-1988 New Orleans Office: (more district offices) 4640 South Carrollton Avenue, Suite 120 New Orleans, Louisiana 70119 Phone: (504) 483-2325 Fax: (504) 483-7944 New Orleans Office: 4640 South Carrollton Avenue, Suite 120 New Orleans, Louisiana 70119 Phone: (504) 483-2325Fax: (504) 483-7944 web contact formIt would be appropriate to let him know how much we appreciate his vote. Not for the value of the vote, but because he gave the Dhims cover to say that it was "bipartisan."

THE REPUBLICAN THAT VOTED WITH OBAMA-PELOSI-REID AND THE REST OF THE DEMOCRAT COMMUNIST PARTY * Posted by gary on November 8, 2009 at 1:44am in General, Uncategorized Town Hall * Add as Friend View Discussions JUST LIKE COMMUNIST VIETNAM HE CAST HIS VOTE WITH THE AMERICAN COMMUNIST A Prized Republican on the Ropes Joseph Cao was hailed six months ago as the future of the GOP. Yesterday, he voted to rebuke Joe Wilson. Can the most endangered Republican in the House survive? By Benjamin Sarlin. As he made his way to the podium to give his health-care speech last Wednesday—a...

NEW ORLEANS – State investigators raided ACORN offices on Friday, taking away computer hard drives and documents as part of a probe into alleged embezzlement and tax fraud when the organization's national headquarters was based in New Orleans."This is an investigation of everything — ACORN, the national organization, the local organization and all of its affiliated entities, specifically as it relates to any potential violations of Louisiana law," Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said.ACORN staff on the scene declined to comment, but an attorney for the group said in a statement the raid was prompted by allegations that former ACORN...

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts. The large office building sits at the corner of Dorgenois and Canal. ACORN staffers were given no notice that a search would be conducted today, Herring said. "They have been extremely cooperative," she said. Early last month, Caldwell's office issued subpoenas for records from...

In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association. News of the raid comes from Marcel Reid and her colleagues at ACORN 8, an association of former ACORN leaders and board members. Many of the individuals involved with ACORN 8 were fired from ACORN for demanding a forensic audit following an embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke. Check back her for more details, as well as a statement...

In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association. News of the raid comes from Marcel Reid and her colleagues at ACORN 8, an association of former ACORN leaders and board members. Many of the individuals involved with ACORN 8 were fired from ACORN for demanding a forensic audit following an embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke. . Update: Big Government has contacted the Louisiana Attorney’s General office....

A Food and Drug Administration decision to impose draconian new rules on oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico could wreck Louisiana's $300 million-a-year industry and restrict the diets of raw oyster lovers here and elsewhere for most of the year -- all in a misguided effort to prevent a serious but rare health threat. The FDA announced guidelines, to go into effect in 2011, that would require all Gulf oysters harvested from April through October to undergo a sterilization process before they can be sold. That could double or even triple the cost of Louisiana oysters for consumers and...

New Orleans not only faces a $68 million budget shortfall for 2010. City government is running more than $30 million in the red this year, due in large part to a sharp drop in sales tax revenue, officials said Wednesday. Earlier optimistic assessments that huge post-Katrina investments in New Orleans would insulate the city from the worst effects of a national recession have proved wrong, city economist Jerome Lomba told the city's Revenue Estimating Conference. City sales tax revenue for 2009, projected last fall to total $157 million, is now expected to fall $23 million short of that amount, in...

At the small warehouse tucked away in the back side of the French Quarter, the shuckers at P&J Oyster Co. have arrived before daybreak for 133 years. Their in-shell and shucked oysters have been on the menus of generations of restaurateurs, from oysters on the halfshell at Acme Oyster House and Casemento’s to the seafood gumbo at Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse. In less than two years, the tradition could become obsolete for seven months out of the year, based on newly announced oyster guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration. In an effort to reduce cases of a rare, but potentially...

For more than a decade, Stephen Bradberry has served in various roles for ACORN's New Orleans operations, but none of them -- perhaps with the notable exception of picking up the pieces after Hurricane Katrina -- involved the obvious challenges of his new role as a temporary administrator of the state community action network. That's the assignment ACORN National President Maude Hurd handed to him after the national board voted over the weekend to take over the Louisiana operation as part of an ongoing rift between the parent organization and the leaders of its one-time home base. Bradberry, who came...

As he returns to New Orleans today after a six-day junket in Cuba, Mayor Ray Nagin almost certainly will face questions about the latest addition to his collection of controversial comments. Nagin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he thinks Cuba's repressive regime does "a much better job" than U.S. officials of identifying citizen needs and deploying resources in the face of hurricanes, which routinely batter the Caribbean nation. Though Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma all struck the island last year, only seven Cubans were killed, in part because authorities use soldiers to close highways and enforce evacuations. Harking...

The Archdiocese of New Orleans and its charitable arm, Catholic Charities, said Tuesday they will pay $5.182 million to an undisclosed number of adults who claimed that years ago as children they were beaten, berated and sexually molested at two Catholic orphanages that were supposed to shelter them because their families were in disarray. The archdiocese announced a package settlement of 20 lawsuits, most of them filed by adults alleging that in the 1950s and 1960s they were abused at Madonna Manor and nearby Hope Haven on the West Bank. "I hope these mediations and negotiations will bring some peace...

Ratcheting up the hostilities between ACORN's national leadership and the Louisiana chapter of the community action network, the parent organization voted this weekend to take over the local division and install a national employee to succeed the longtime local boss who was fired last week. Yet local ACORN leaders, including the recently deposed Beth Butler, say they are nearing completion of a long-planned separation from the national organization, setting up shop in new offices but under the same name. The competing moves are the latest developments in an ongoing power struggle between the national entity and its original chapter, and...

A small but important group of workers at the Audubon Zoo has voted to join the Teamsters union. Audubon's zookeepers voted 17-14 to join Teamsters Local 270. Despite the close vote, the zoo's management has decided not to challenge the election results, and the union will now be certified as the workers' official bargaining agent. Zookeepers work directly with the animals in exhibits such as the Asian domain and primate center, but their ranks do not include animal curators, who are considered part of management. Audubon has a total staff of about 600, including 450 full-time workers. The Teamsters represent...

Come for the Disaster Preparedness Lecture, Stay for the Totalitarianism   [Mark Hemingway] It was in the web briefing yetserday, but my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I finally read "New Orleans mayor learns about disaster response in Cuba." So one day after President Obama is in the Big Easy, Mayor Ray Nagin heads off to Cuba to learn about disaster preparedness? What does the Cuban government possibly have to teach us? Here's the Cuban disaster preparedness plan in a nutshell: Kill off the private economy for 50 years so that when a hurricane comes you don't have...

Thomas Lee White spent a year in prison for another man's mistake. But White's own error has left him with little legal recourse. A federal appellate court ruled late last month that White -- who was jailed in New Orleans for public drunkenness, mistakenly identified and then lost in the state penal system for a full year after Hurricane Katrina -- has no right to a federal civil lawsuit because he didn't file the suit fast enough. He is one of countless former jail inmates who appear to have been deprived of their constitutional right to due process in the...

NOPD keeps moving protest back, at the end, one arrested.

Making his first visit to Louisiana since becoming the nation's 44th chief executive, President Barack Obama told a spirited crowd at the University of New Orleans on Thursday that he will help build a stronger Gulf Coast than the one Hurricane Katrina and broken levees wrecked four years ago. "I promise you this -- whether it's me coming down here or my Cabinet or other members of my administration -- we will not forget about New Orleans," Obama said. "We are going to keep on working. . . . Together, we will rebuild this region, and we will build it...

A sturdy bike is a good way to get around the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The roads are still pretty rough, the distances between places tend to be too long to walk and too short to drive, and on a bike you can easily stop and chat with the residents who have returned. I moved to New Orleans about a year after Hurricane Katrina, and I’ve ridden my bike out here every month or two to see how the rebuilding has been faring. Also, I’ve heard that Brad Pitt likes to bike around when he’s in town. Folks...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will be in New Orleans today, making his first post-inauguration visit to a city and region desperate to impress upon him both the long strides made since Hurricane Katrina and the daunting challenges yet ahead in housing, education, health care, levee protection and coastal restoration. The stopover will clock in at three hours and 45 minutes, enough time to visit the only school to reopen in the Lower 9th Ward since Katrina, conduct a town hall at the University of New Orleans, and grab a to-go order from Dooky Chase. "I know he likes gumbo,...

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said that he would dedicate himself to helping New Orleans and the Gulf Coast recover from the horror of Hurricane Katrina, which took 1,800 lives, caused more than $40 billion in damage and displaced more than one million people. "This will be a priority of my presidency," he said in February of last year. "And I will make it clear to members of my administration that their responsibilities don't end in places like the Ninth Ward -- they begin there." On Thursday, roughly four years after Katrina hit, Mr. Obama makes his first trip...

In Norway they may think that President Barack Obama has a great knack for peace, but around here his forte seems to be stirring up strife. New Orleans is mad because Obama's visit tomorrow will be little more than a whistlestop. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is mad because New Orleans gets all the attention, such as it is, while the lingering effects of Katrina over there are ignored. And from southwest Louisiana comes the cry, "What about Rita, Gustav and Ike? The president really needs to take a look at Cameron Parish." Obama is also being denounced for an apparent...

Just as criminal justice officials in New Orleans started to take note of a remarkable stretch -- two weeks and counting without a murder -- a homicide call crackled over police radios. New Orleans' murder total ticked up by one Monday afternoon when a 22-year-old man was killed after a triple shooting in the Desire neighborhood. The violent death brings the number of homicides in the city to at least 150 this year, closing out the longest murder-free stretch -- 15 days. The last time [New Orleans Police Department] detectives were called to a murder scene was Sept. 27, when...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward and then hold a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans Lakefront Campus on Thursday, the White House announced Sunday evening. With the announcement, the contours of the president's first visit to New Orleans since taking office appear complete. Local officials, including Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and David Vitter, R-La., had protested Obama's original plan for only one stop, the town hall, on his New Orleans trip. Obama will fly in on Air Force One on Thursday morning, visit the...

The satirical spirit of New Orleans humor is on full display in "The Ray Nagin Coloring Book," the creation of local artist Karen Ocker (New Basin Press, $9.95). A new coloring book features New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Some of Nagin's more colorful quotable remarks are accompanied by Ocker's witty line drawings. It's adult entertainment, for sure -- remember "I stand before you, a vagina friendly mayor. I am in?" Or laugh at Nagin as a staggering mouse, laboring under a huge burden of cheese, , saying "I have change a lot and moved a lot of people's cheese. See...

Looking for romance? Head to Honolulu. But if you are single, like live music, boutique hotels and want a wild weekend, New Orleans is the city to visit. In its latest survey of America's favorite cities Travel and Leisure magazine asked readers to pick the best places for everything from the most attractive, intelligent, stylish and the friendliest people to where to find the best museums, restaurants, bars, museums and affordable hotels. "The big news this year is that New Orleans received the most number one rankings over New York," said Travel and Leisure Assistant Editor Stirling Kelso. ...The city...

WASHINGTON - The White House set the date Thursday, announcing that President Obama's long-awaited visit to New Orleans to assess the progress of the city's recovery four years after Hurricane Katrina, will be Oct. 15. But a brief White House memo to members of the Louisiana congressional delegation, alerting them "that the President will be traveling to New Orleans on Thursday, October 15 for a town hall," irked both Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and David Vitter, R-La., who suggested that if that is the extent of the president's visit, it is not enough. "The president's administration has achieved some truly...

NEW ORLEANS — An internal review at Acorn, the embattled community organizing group, revealed that its founder’s brother had embezzled $5 million from the group, five times more than the amount disclosed, according to a subpoena served Monday by the Louisiana attorney general. But the organization’s chief executive denied that any internal review had revealed that figure.

A long list or organizations were HQ'd at ACORN headquarters in NO. Here is a partial list from the very first page of Google search results. ACORN Community Land Association Tamara Jacobson Law Office Affiliated Media Foundation Service Workers Action Team (SEIU) Klotz & Early Law Firm http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2009/prg092409i.pdf A 13-page Senate Finance Committee document of the groups listed for the address, apparently. A real eye opener.

Photo taken today by Big Government contributor Kevin Kane at ACORN Headquarters in the Big Easy

A credible source claims the embattled left-wing advocacy group ACORN is poised to announce massive staff layoffs but an ACORN spokesman denies this is the case. A credible source close to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now revealed that the activist network intends to lay off all staff members operating out of its New Orleans headquarters. All information provided by the source to this reporter in the past has turned out to be correct. However, ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson of the public relations firm The Advance Group in New York City said the source was incorrect. In...

Last night, ACORN founder Wade Rathke spoke at Busboys and Poets, a Washington coffeehouse and well-known lefty hangout. Rathke was promoting his new book, Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families. Given the controversy over ACORN, you'd think the media would have been interested in Rathke's making a public appearence and taking questions. But you'd be wrong. Besides NRO, only three media outlets showed up to cover the event: BigGovernment.com, The Nation, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune (Rathke's hometown paper). That was it. While Rathke's primary purpose was to discuss and promote his book, he did take a...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will visit New Orleans in mid-October to see firsthand the progress made since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The news of the presidential visit came as Obama signed an executive order Tuesday extending the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Recovery and Rebuilding for six months, through April 1. The White House also said that to improve disaster recovery efforts nationally, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will lead a six-month effort to examine lessons learned during previous disaster recovery efforts and determine areas for improved collaboration...

Note: The following text is a quote: Jury Convicts Defense Department Official of Unlawful Communication of Classified Information and Making False Statements James Wilbur Fondren Jr., was convicted by a federal jury today on charges involving providing classified information to a man working with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and lying to the FBI about it. Fondren was convicted of one count of unlawfully communicating classified information to an agent of a foreign government and two counts of making false statements to the FBI. He was acquitted of two unlawful communication of classified information, one count of conspiracy to...

Almost nine months into 2009, at least 219 New Orleanians have attempted to take their own lives; 47 of them have succeeded. The number and rate of suicides is higher than in previous years and approaches twice the national rate.

See video @ WDSU: IRS Leins on ACORN

The story in a nutshell: Bertha Lewis is the CEO of ACORN. In a review of Lewis’s contacts list, which was leaked to RedState, Bertha Lewis has the office, cell phone, home number, and private personal email address of Patrick Gaspard. Patrick Gaspard holds Karl Rove’s position in the White House and was Obama’s Political Director during the campaign. In addition to Patrick, Bertha has Patrick’s brother Michael in her rolodex. She lists Michael as working at the Advance Group. The Advance Group is ACORN’s lobbying organization. In other words, besides having Obama’s political director’s contact info, the political director’s...

Two contracts are fully executed and a third is in the approval and signing stage between the city of New Orleans and ACORN. While Congress voted and Governor Jindal issued an executive order cutting ACORN off from future funding, Anthony Faciane says the city had "discussions" about ACORN contracts, but will honor them. Faciane, Deputy for Neighborhood Stabilization for the city says, "I would like to assure everyone that the Affordable Housing staff, the In-take staff and the Construction staff of the Office of Community Development will monitor all aspects of these programs before any payments are made to the...

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." Not true: The IRS and Louisiana's taxmen have imposed nearly $2 million in liens against ACORN for failing to fork over taxes at its New Orleans national headquarters. The IRS recently filed a $548,000 lien against the group, and Louisiana state tax officials have slapped $334,000 in liens on ACORN since last October. Evidence that ACORN ignored its tax obligations may be less exciting than its branch offices' eagerness to help a self-professed pimp break multiple laws, or the voter-registration fraud for...

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

NEW ORLEANS — ACORN, the national activist group dogged by a high-profile voter registration fraud scandal, has another bruising item on its agenda when its board of directors meets here this weekend. Leaders of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are locked in a legal dispute stemming from allegations that the brother of the group's founder misappropriated nearly $1 million of the nonprofit's money several years ago. The embezzlement case, a recent revelation to some board members, has spawned a lawsuit and set off a power struggle inside ACORN at a time when the liberal group's voter registration...

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President Obama is right: This nation shouldn't allow tens of millions of its citizens to be left without health care. Those Americans suffer physically and financially, and the country is diminished because of it. He is also right that it is time for our leaders to act. As the economic downturn leaves more and more people without health insurance, the well-being of thousands of families is eroding week to week. The president made that case persuasively in his address to Congress and the nation Wednesday. It was high time that he stepped in. After a fractious August, during which both...

Superintendent Says He's Ordered Students To Watch Address NEW ORLEANS -- Orleans Parish School Board Superintendent Darryl Kilbert said Friday he's ordering teachers, staff and students to watch President Obama's address designated for schools on Sep. 8. The directive impacts students and staff at four Orleans parish schools. And the Superintendent said he's encouraging charter schools within the district to allow students to watch President's address. “Not only will the President’s speech address civic engagement and personal responsibility, both pillars of Louisiana education goals, it will also allow our students to participate in interdisciplinary lessons and discussions,” Kilbert said. The...

For the past several months, the federal building on Poydras Street has seen a steady stream of New Orleans police officers trudge in and out, all of them testifying before grand jurors gathering evidence of possible civil rights violations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- allegations that center on police misbehavior. Federal agents, meanwhile, have been studying police e-mails and documents obtained by subpoena -- as well as through a surprise search warrant executed on the New Orleans Police Department homicide office -- in an attempt to ferret out exactly what happened in the chaotic days after the storm....

If a presidential election were held last night on the campus of Loyola University New Orleans, the winner would not have been the 48 year old occupant of the White House, but a spry 74 year old physician from Texas. U..S. Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) enthralled a huge crowd of supporters and students with a one hour address on topics ranging from the war in Afghanistan to the Federal Reserve. The crowd was so large that the university set up five overflow rooms to accommodate the intense interest in Dr. Paul’s message. It was amazing to see such an enthusiastic...

A Florida contractor hired by the Housing Authority of New Orleans to oversee its finances embezzled more than $900,000 during the past three years, according to charges filed Monday by the U.S. attorney's office. Separate public records show that during the same time period the fiscal manager, Elias Castellanos, 43, bought a $1.6 million mansion in Davie, Fla., just north of Miami, and five late-model cars -- including a Lamborghini Gallardo worth more than $200,000, a Ferrari F430, a Porsche 911 and two Mercedes-Benzes. Federal prosecutors charged Castellanos with one count of embezzlement Monday through a bill of information, indicating...

NEW ORLEANS -- Two brothers who were shot and stabbed to death in a Carondelet Street apartment late Sunday night were killed in apparent self-defense, New Orleans police said. Click To Comment Carlos Calderon, 39, and Luis Calderon, 26, were found dead around 11:15 p.m. Sunday in an apartment at 1132 Carondelet Street. Two other men, a 38-year-old and a 31-year-old, were found in the apartment with multiple stab wounds. The Calderon brothers lived in the same building and had been involved in an argument with the two survivors earlier Sunday, police said. Later that night, the brothers -- armed...

Dear Mr. President, Tomorrow we will mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed the lives of 1,400 Louisianians and nearly killed a great American city. We will miss having you in our midst. We know you don't lack passion for our community and its recovery. Though you haven't been here as president, as a senator you visited five times after Katrina. We remember well the fervor of your speech at Tulane University on your last visit, a year and a half ago. "I promise you that when I'm in the White House, I will commit myself every day...

MEXICO'S volatile border city of Ciudad Juarez has the world's highest murder rate, followed by Caracas, Venezuela and the US city of New Orleans. Ciudad Juarez - the scene of regular and brutal score-settling between rival drug gangs - has 130 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, the Citizen's Council for Public Security said. Caracas has 96 murders per 100,000 inhabitants and New Orleans registers 95, the Mexican non-governmental organisation said, basing its figures on media and FBI reports. Caracas was listed as the murder capital of the world in the September 2008 Foreign Policy magazine, quoting official figures of 130 murders...